It’s all about winning in poker — and anything that we can do to help you win is something that we have absolutely no problem assisting you with. Approaching poker form multiple angles is really just the name of the game. One question that comes up a lot is: should I really buy in at the max for a ring game, or try to go in for the minimum? The truth is that trying to go short stack could be a damaging move. You’re going to have fewer chips than everyone, so guess where all of the heat is going to be? It’s going to be focused on bringing you down because you have the least amount of chips. Going for the maximum amount of chips is a good thing — it can also not cost you too terribly much if you play low enough stakes.
If you’re doing microlimits (50c/1$), you’ll need $100 in order to have the max on the table. This isn’t too bad, and should be manageable on your bankroll. There are some strong reasons to go with pushing for the maximum.
You can definitely make a lot more money having a big stack than a short stack. It allows you to push around players around, go in for pots that the short stack can’t reach, and otherwise pursue a stronger image. Image is everything when it comes to poker. If you can push other players into believing that you’re the top dog, they’ll back out of pots only because they know that you’ll be after them. Of course, this doesn’t give you the right to play stupidly. You have to make sure that you’re not chasing marginal hands and bad pots. You still need to understand pot odds, implied odds, and reverse implied odds.
Sometimes it’s nice to also be able to have your pick of great pots. When you don’t have a lot of money on the game, you have to be so cautious with the type of pots that you chase. This is much different when it comes to having the best stack possible.
Make sure that you’re still turning to the basic tenets of good poker strategy. Playing your poker position to the fullest will let you really get things done in a big way. Why not look into things as soon as possible, as in “right now”? Remember — you can’t get better at poker if you don’t practice!